Open Thread

Ugh. Just, do fucking better, male legislators and lobbyists. I don’t know who the Democratic legislator mentioned is, but he should resign. Lobby shops have a chance to clean house; They shouldn’t waste it.

Good to see that @1 admits that it has been going on before Drumnpf and for years as normal behavior…

That morals really didn’t exist and the homophobes just want the others to morals…..bur for the privileged Straights everything goes – murder, mayhem, rape, robbery, and corruption. Just think of it as The Straights way!

Sadly though, this has been a huge problem for lobbyists for decades. It has to do with the nature of the work and the relationship between lobbyists and lawmakers and their staff.

Not dissimilar I would think from the relationship between pharma sales reps and doctors and their staff. Doctors, nurses, and sales reps will tell you plenty of similar stories. Probably many similarities exist in other previously male dominated professions. Construction certainly comes to mind.

Nobody should have to endure mistreatment in order to do their job. But in high commission sales it can come with the territory. And most male sales professionals I’ve known have been far too prideful of their commissions and incomes to ever reveal much about what they’ve had to endure to earn them. Still, get a few adult beverages into them and they loosen their tongues.

Lawmakers and their staffs should be held to a far higher standard. And the world will be a much better place for healthy, well educated, progressive, coastal “elites” when they are. I’ve always been of the opinion that any system that tolerates and encourages this kind of bullshit ultimately favors the incompetent and the ethically depraved. In other words, Hillbillies.

If a deranged white guy shoots 500+ people with a rifle modified to fire like a machinegun by an aftermarket accessory that shouldn’t be legal, but is, Trump hesitates, equivocates, and says we need to “get all the facts” before changing Republican gun laws.

If a Muslim immigrant mows down 20 people with a vehicle, Trump tweets knee-jerk nonsense about the Democrats’ immigration policies.

@7 “The stress from learning how deeply you betrayed your country has spiked your BP.”

The diagnosis is correct, but the etiology is wrong. Doc can betray his country without winking an eye, as his HA posts have demonstrated countless times. No, the stress in his life must be sourcing from somewhere else. The horse barn is suspected, or, perhaps, an OIG review of his Medicare billings …

@12 “For every Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes, how many liberals doing the same thing are going to be exposed?”

My preliminary estimate is about a 50:1 ratio. What do I base that on? The frat-boy attitude permeating conservative culture from top to bottom, of course. There’s nothing comparable in liberal circles, only the usual few rotten apples, which is inevitable given human nature. You also have to consider that Republicans possess most of the money and power in our society, and therefore have the leverage to chase female associates around the boss’s desk or fondle beauty contestants backstage. Liberals tend not to own things like the Miss USA Pageant.

15, thanks, you beat me to it. This goes way back. For every 20 wide stances there’ve been one or two dick pics or blue dresses. But as I’ve pointed out repeatedly, and as Врач немой ебать continues to confirm nearly every day, Hillbillies consistently fail to comprehend the defining contours surrounding consent in a given situation. Instead the rely almost entirely on an externally imposed code of behavior that exists outside of the situation. And because of that they get this wrong more often.

I hope there’s no doubt by now that, like domestic violence, sexually motivated harassment knows few political boundaries. Of course bizarre, bronze-age cults-of-superstition that fundamentally regard women as property will lend themselves to these abuses, resulting in countless freaks like Mike Pence. But even outside of those twisted orthodoxies, many of the same tradition worshiping impulses are disproportionately found among “conservatives”. Having abandoned every single other “conservative” principle, that and xenophobia are all they have left to bind them.

I’ll say it again, nobody should have to endure mistreatment in order to do their job. And we should be equally merciless in confronting every perpetrator. I’m very confident that in the end people like Врач немой ебать, who simply are unable to comprehend consent, will be forced out of the workplace. And that will be good for everyone.

17, yeah, sad right? But not really. He had a helluva life and he never stopped going. And he sure wasn’t made for times like these. What I’ll remember most about him are his deliberately vague route descriptions in his guides, particularly the approaches. He wanted those who followed him to earn access. There’s a lot to be said for that in an era of easy access to everything right from your phone.

@20 Actually, I expected him to still be climbing at age 100. He wasn’t immortal, but he certainly figured out how to stay alive in the mountains. But deep down inside, we all knew Father Time would get him someday.

I didn’t know his brother was an opera singer or still alive. I once asked Fred if Helmy was still climbing, and Fred just shrugged and said no, and that was the entire conversation. I didn’t know him personally, and never climbed with him, but I encountered him a few times.

The other 52% spent their entire careers working one-on-one with Goldy.

A new poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal shows that 48 percent of currently employed women in the United States say that they have personally experienced an unwelcome sexual advance or verbal or physical harassment at work.

Roger Rabbit Commentary: No one’s disputing this is terrorism. The problem is, the suspect is a legal resident who committed a crime on U.S. soil, and therefore is entitled to the same constitutional rights as other criminal suspects. That means the president can’t ship him out of country to a military facility for indefinite detention without trial.

Strange, for the right to make the case that there is a moral and ethical equivalency between Hollywood moguls and their stars and the POTUS and his party.

Between political parties, that’s another story. One party has a long history of degeneracy which includes raping children, goats, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, watermelons and washing machines, not to mention that they have in recent years been exhibiting very strange and unfortunate public toilet behavior patterns.

The other party? A quarter century ago a married POTUS got a BJ from a young woman. Recently, someone else sent a dic pic.

@26 (cont.) But suppose Congress gave POTUS the power to indefinitely detain domestic terrorists without trial. How do you keep that authority from being exercised arbitrarily? Who decides who’s a terrorist, as opposed to an ordinary criminal, and by what criteria? If this guy goes to Gitmo, then shouldn’t the Charlottesville suspect also go to Gitmo? If not, is being a “foreigner” the distinguishing factor? (The problem with this is that our courts don’t make this distinction when deciding whether constitutional rights apply.)

Trump’s reckless remark is either suggesting an illegal exercise of presidential power, or if he’s advocating new anti-terrorism legislation, wants to open a legal can of worms he obviously doesn’t comprehend.

I’m just speculating. But I think one of the things Team Treason may have to worry about is the annoying habit too many people “of a certain age” have of printing out emails and other communications.

In case you didn’t know, Mueller has been successful in compelling grand jury testimony from the lawyer who was representing Manafort and Gates in their responses to the Justice Dept and Senate about FARA before Mueller was appointed special prosecutor. Manafort and Gates fought the grand jury testimony. Things turned after the early morning search of Manafort’s VA home. In response to Justice and Senate inquiries about foreign lobbying the lawyer had told them that the two had merely acted as match maker between Party of Regions and other lobbying firms, and that there were no records of the communications because the firm’s policy was to destroy email after 30 days. But following the raid of Manafort’s home the judge deciding about the grand jury testimony came to the conclusion that the lawyer had been dishonest – a pretty serious assertion by itself – referring to redacted evidence originating from the raid. Ooops.

I still see guys this age printing out emails and organizing them in little fucking stacks and files all the time. And it’s easy to believe that, aside from killing trees, there’s no harm in it. And for most people that is probably true. But if you’re a criminal, or the ethically challenged lawyer of criminals, it is not harmless. I believe she is facing disbarment in the near future. And if she isn’t cooperating with Mueller, or preparing to do so, she is also probably going to jail. And it may be she can thank a “harmless” habit of old guys for that.

29, You’d think by now he’d have learned how these kinds of rage-Tweet remarks can have precisely the opposite effect.

Some future judge is going to be asked to rule on whether these kinds of idiotic remarks convey an unconstitutional or illegal intent on the part of the Executive. For the poor slobs who have to defend his EOs, administrative rules, and policies in court this just makes their jobs much harder. It’s like he is trying to fail. And the more he fails, the harder he tries.

@31 Ah yes, emails again. The real shit is always in the emails, so every lawyer worth a damn always subpoenas the emails. You’d be amazed what CEOs, politicians, criminals, etc., put in emails.

How many times have I told anyone who will listen to never write an email they don’t want a hostile prosecutor reading to a jury in a court of law. But Republicans don’t listen to me. One of the traits of stupid people is their insistence on continuing to be stupid.

@32 Sens. McCain and Graham just publicly stated the guy should be treated as an “enemy combatant” so he can be hustled away and pumped for intelligence.

McCain isn’t a lawyer. Graham was a JAG officer, but I’m uncertain whether he ever practiced civilian law. In any case, I’d be interested to know what his reasoning is that the government has authority to do this. Some statute?

I’m not saying it’s a bad idea; I’m just curious what the authority is to detain a legal resident without charges, and question him in disregard of his right to an attorney and to remain silent.

I’m curious how they can do that, and if they can’t do it, why POTUS and two U.S. Senators are thinking out loud about doing it.

33, Mueller’s guys probably had enough of the “unwitting dupe” defense with Enron. There’ll be none of that “Oh Lordy, Miss Scarlett! I don’t know nothin’ ’bout birthin’ no plots to defraud the gubmit!” Either they lied to their lawyer. And they’re fucked. Or they instructed their lawyer to lie. And she’s fucked too. Either way Manafort and Gates are fucked.

@37 Why didn’t the cops shoot the guy at the scene? The answer seems obvious. Even though he’s Muslim, and looks like a Muslim, he’s still white. If someone who looks like Puddy did this, he’d be dead.

But I think one of the things Team Treason may have to worry about is the annoying habit too many people “of a certain age” have of printing out emails and other communications. … And it may be she can thank a “harmless” habit of old guys for that.

It’s amazing to me that, mostly men, are just realizing the the workplace is a hostile environment for women. Almost like they haven’t read any of a thousand feminist books on the subject.

Reminds me of people who are Shocked that just now in the age of Trump black people find the confederate flag, confederate statues and the National Anthem objectionable. It’s almost like they’ve been ignoring black voices for the last century or so.

@43 So the question of the day is, should America institute arbitrary detentions and/or summary executions of terrorists? I’m not asking a legal question but a philosophical question that assumes we can fashion laws for whatever we want to do. If yes, does this include domestic terrorists? i.e., Timothy McVeighs, Paul Hills, James Alex Fields, and Dylan Roofs of the world? If yes, who decides what is “terrorism,” and what is merely a crime? According to what criteria? What about those who incite or encourage violent acts of terrorism, e.g. the Jason Kesslers, Grand Wizards, and Milo Yiannopouloses of the world? Does this category include aiders and abetters like Fuckface, Salt Miner, and Doctor Horsefucker? Lots of questions, no answers.

House Intelligence has posted a sample of some of the Social Media ads that Russia purchased to sway the 2016 Presidential election. Looks rather dismally like an archive of Treason-Troll posts on HA from last year.

— Mayor de Blasio agreed in January 2016 to purge the remarkably prescient police training guide “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat” to help settle a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Muslim groups who claimed the NYPD’s anti-terror training discriminated against Muslims. —

PuddyCommentary: The chicken came home to roost! God is Great! DeBlasio praised domestic terrorism!

@54 The trouble is parents have no control over how their children turn out. There’s a risk that despite your best efforts you might inflict another Puddy or Doctor Dumbfuck on the world. It can happen. Just ask Puddy’s mother.

Get ready for a move by Fuckface on the Russia probe. Last night he reached out to Haberman once again in what is becoming a depressing pattern. He seems to view her as his “interpreter” to the “liberal, FAKE news” (everything other than Fox, WSJ editorial page, and GatewayPundit). And he has established a pretty consistent record of getting on the phone with her to pre-spin the next atrocity – a role she seems to have settled into like an old comfortable chair set on a very high pedestal with crown and scepter.

I think his ward nurses will urge him to wait until after VA election, and the tax bill is wrapped up one way or another. But he’s not a patient guy. Still, Mueller must be nervous about pardons, . And I imagine he’d like to use whatever interregnum he is permitted between his Monday announcement and the next Fuckface move to leverage as much cooperation from co-conspirators as possible. With the 12 day Asian ordeal starting tomorrow things will get dicey. The Man-Baby does not travel well. It screws up his daily early AM routine of shitting and yelling obscenities at Siri. It may not be possible for him to make it all the way through a hyper-luxury tour of Asian capitals devoid of Taco Bowls and scoops of Rocky Road without losing his shit again. Pardons are coming. Sooner or later.

Well, the GOP unveiled details of their tax giveaway to the rich today, and the stock market is underwhelmed, although it ticked up a bit after Trump chose Powell to succeed Yellen at the Fed. As for me, being what you might call “borderline rich” (I’m worth slightly over a measly $1 million), I’ll only benefit proportionally. A quick-and-dirty calculation indicates my taxes will be cut by about $100 a year. If you’re an average-joe working stiff, well, I don’t feel sorry for you. You either should have been a capitalist like me, or voted for Democrats.

The main thing to say about Trump picking Powell to run the Fed is it could have been worse, according to the He’s-Not-Taylor School of Thought. But it’s not innocuous, as some of the media would have you believe.

Powell likely will stick to Yellen’s plan of gradually normalizing interest rates. That’s probably good, as far as it goes. But Powell is a lawyer, not an economist, and lacks Yellen’s understanding of macroeconomics and how the monetary system works; and because accurate timing is almost everything in this game, he’s much more likely to fuck it up.

This isn’t about interest rates, though, despite the media’s focus on interest rate policy. As CNBC points out, “this appointment has strong political undertones.” It’s about re-deregulating Wall Street, the banks, and the financial industry. That’s not good for average Americans.

That’s not all. There are even deeper undertows in this current. CNBC again: “There may be more pressure by Congressional oversight to promote excessively accommodative monetary policy in the near term to meet the president’s call for a greater growth rate.” Also, “Will Powell be able to know when to take the appropriate policy risks for the sake of the economy? The last non-economist to run the Fed, which was between 1977-1979, was G. William Miller, a former business CEO. The disastrous leadership accelerated inflation by excessively expansionary monetary policy and led to his firing after 18 months.”

This is classic Trump: Appoint people with minimal qualifications to top policymaking positions who will make momentous policy decisions in line with his simplistic notions of restoring America’s 19th century laissez faire economy.

AG:“I have never met with or had any conversation with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election in the United States. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign.”

Sen: “Once again, developments in the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election have brought to light evidence that you failed to tell the truth about your interactions with Russian operatives during the campaign, as well as your awareness of Russian contacts by other members of the Trump campaign team.”

PressSec: “Attorney General Sessions swore to tell the truth in his testimony before the Senate. So any reports to the contrary must, by definition, be false. Why are all you guys spreading fake news? Quit it. MAGA*”

DFA/MoveOn/Indivisible are looking for dialer volunteers for VA GOTV this weekend.

Affluent, healthy, well-educated, progressive west coasters have some time-zone advantages. Afternoon shifts for us are prime time shifts on the East coast. You can do your patriotic duty to defeat Russian espionage and GOP treason. And still head out for the evening of fun to reward yourselves!

Meanwhile, a GOP megadonor pretends to recant and repent. He must be thinking about his mortality and what might come after.

“Billionaire investor and conservative donor Robert Mercer announced Thursday he is … selling his stake in the website Breitbart News to his daughters. The announcement follows several exposes ― from BuzzFeed News and Think Progress ― highlighting Breitbart’s ties to white nationalists and neo-Nazis. … Mercer said he wanted to set the record straight … that he found discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender ‘abhorrent.’ Mercer specifically took aim at far-right troll and former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, saying he ‘was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him.'”

Roger Rabbit Commentary: So, you’re thinking, what’s the catch? Of course, there is one. The catch is his daughters lack his compunctions (such as they are). They embrace rightwing extremists even more eagerly than he does.

P.S., if Mercer had any real compunctions about Breitbart, he wouldn’t “sell” (aka give) his Breitbart stake to his daughters. He’d get rid of it. This is like trying to get rid of a toxic mess in the living room by drilling a hole in the floor so it drains into the basement. The problem is, it’s still in the house. Likewise, as long as his Breitbart holdings stay in his family, they continue to pollute his family.

The problem with Trump’s demand we blindly support all cops, all the time, without ever criticizing their job performance, of course is the fact there are bad cops.

Human nature being what it is, every barrel has bad apples, no matter how hard you try to keep them out. But abusive and downright criminal policing has become so common in our country it’s obvious there’s a problem with how police departments screen, recruit, train, and supervise their officers.

We must insist they do better. American policing is falling short of professional ideals and needs reform. Our own lives, not to mention our daughters’ chastity, may depend on it.

@85 “How many families sold their farms to corporations in order to avoid the estate tax?”

That’s your source? A Seattle Times bullshit editorial? Well, since you didn’t answer your own question, I’ll take a stab at it.

My guess is none. People sell their family farms to corporations because they’re getting old and want to retire, and their children aren’t interested in being farmers.

But we don’t need to guess, because this question has been thoroughly researched. In 2015, Fortune magazine reported, “But as to the actual number of family farms hit by the estate tax, only 20 farms in 2013 paid estate taxes and no farms have been reported sold to pay off an estate tax debt.” These numbers probably aren’t significantly different today, because the tax laws haven’t significantly changed since 2013.

As the Fortune article points out, the estate tax poses no challenges for family farmers that some estate and tax planning can’t cope with.

But that won’t stop bullshitters from bullshitting. The trouble with bullshit, doc, is bullshitters get caught. That’s why we call you Doctor Dumbfuck. Btw, did you short GE like I suggested? You should have. It slipped under $20 today. No? Didn’t put your money where your mouth is? Not surprised. Bullshitters never do. They’re all cowards.

91, along with the entire Facebook programmed mob of Fuckface’s hooting meat bag supporters, he does not understand the issue.

Regardless of whatever kinds of idiotic (and quite often unconstitutional) administrative directives ICE agents receive from the “bigly qualified” PTA parents Fuckface put in charge at Homeland, most states have constitutions of their own. And laws. And due process guarantees. And courts. Thus state agents lacking appropriate legal guidance who partake in racially motivated terror campaigns in our communities put the taxpayers at considerable risk of civil liability, just for starters.

I urge all the hillbillies in their filthy trailer parks to do whatever the fuck they want at whatever cost to themselves at all times. Even as I write this their filthy tax starved shitholes are being tossed out of every financially sound municipal risk sharing pool. Don’t worry. When their local police are de-certified and disbanded they can always take turns manning the watchtowers surrounding “Blue Tarp Estates”.

Fuckface, his GOP enablers, and the Russian Lobby want to spend $1.5 trillion beyond current projected borrowing to give a huge tax cut to giant global corporations and the wealthy.

Democrats and other American patriots should offer instead to leave taxes alone and to invest the same $1.5 trillion on infrastructure spending for roads, bridges, schools, sea-walls, flood control, etc. and really pump money into the economy in the form of lasting investments in productivity, tons of real/not-imaginary middle class jobs, and living wages. That’s equal to ten moon-shot programs over the same time period.

It’s really no coincidence that the same Russian puppet masters who continue to seek to destroy confidence in democratic institutions would support increasing economic inequality. Nor is it any coincidence that Republicans continue to do their bidding still.

“…never met with or had any conversations with any Russians or any foreign officials concerning any type of interference with any campaign or election. Further, I have no knowledge of any such conversations by anyone connected to the Trump campaign.

The latest Philadelphia DUMMOCRETIN event today are four DUMMOCRETIN election workers who are charged with those Roger senile idiot wabbit non-existent crimes including intimidating voters, casting bogus ballots, and falsely certifying the results in their polling place.

The Colorado Walmart shooter is a dude with issues. Another little man with a gun taking out his frustrations on innocent strangers, in a country that allows such people to have guns. The rest of the world thinks our gun policies are nuts.

Speaking of the right’s little Russian infestation problem, this shit is getting to be just too damned funny. Too bad it harms the nation so damned much. But we can still have few laughs at their expense as we all go to hell in a hand basket.

“The right-wing’s favorite Internet personality was just outed as a Russian troll”

An effective lobbyist will make sure members of the legislature leave happy. Yes a straight male lawmaker should leave with a hugs smile, and so should a lesbian lawmaker. This used to be easier when there were whorehouses in Olympia. Not to say there are no whorehouses in Olympia now, but any woman who wants to be an effective lobbyist should be fully aware of such an establishments existence and go forth and lobby.

@3 So why are liberals and progressives so bloody concerned about sin? Sin does not exist. I don’t think Jews actually believe the apple is original sin and all that, it’s a Christian concept, justifying the coming of Christ, and Christianity.

Just a nice day in the garden and ate an apple and what do you know original sin.

Isn’t it time to roll like Genghis Khan. Sin, there ain’t no fucking sin.

@44 You could ask King George. He considered all those signers of the Declaration of Independence traitors and criminals. Terrorist as a word did not exist, but if had George Washington would have been labeled terrorist.

@79 The whole Fed chair is way overblown. The Fed works as a group. The new guy likes and works for group consensus. A hallmark of many Fed chairs,Congress wants low inflation and jobs which is a bit confiscatory, yet the fed perseveres. Waiting for us to react as expected, Still puzzled and waiting since 2008.

Now that a growing number of the Russian FSB affiliated sites, social media accounts, and propaganda hashtags are being exposed and publicized, it would just be a matter of banning accounts for those who repeatedly link to and repost them.

Knowing that your asses have been banned in defense of democracy, we won’t miss you.

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